public affairs not uninteresting. If there be any thing at present of this character it will be found in the inclosed paper from N. York. We have no late official information from Europe; but all that we see from G. B. indicates an adherence to her mad policy towards the U. S. The Newspapers give you a sufficient insight into the measures of Congress. With a view to enable the Executive to step at once into Canada they have provided after two months delay, for a regular force1 requiring 12 to raise it, and after 3 months for a volunteer force, on terms not likely to raise it at all for that object. The mixture of good & bad, avowed & disguised motives accounting for these things is curious eno' but not to be explained in the compass of a letter. Among other jobbs on my hands is the case of Wilkinson.2

1 The act of January 11th provided for raising immediately ten regiments of infantry, two of artillery and one of light dragoons for five years unless sooner discharged. The act of February 6th authorized the President to accept volunteers to the number of 50,000, to do duty whenever he should deem proper and to be bound to remain in the service for twelve months after arriving at a rendezvous. They were to retain their own officers and receive the same pay and allowances as regular troops.—Annals of Cong. 12th Cong., Part 2, 2230 et seq.

2 James Wilkinson was Senior Brigadier-General in the army. He was tried by court-martial September 2d to December 25th on eight charges-being a pensioner of Spain, treasonable projects for the dismemberment of the United States, conspiracy with Aaron Burr, connivance at treasonable designs, conspiracy against a friendly nation, disobedience of orders, neglect of duty, misapplication and waste of public funds. His acquittal was because there was not sufficient evidence to convict. February 14th, Madison approved the finding with this memorandum:

"I have examined and considered the foregoing proceedings of the General Court Martial, held at Fredericktown, for the trial of Brigadier General Wilkinson-and although I have observed in those proceed

His defence fills 6 or 700 pages of the most collossal paper. The minutes of the Court, oral written & printed testimony, are all in proportion. A month has not yet carried me thro' the whole.

We have had of late a hard winter & much Ice which still lies on the water in view. The reiteration of Earthquakes continues to be reported from various quarters. They have slightly reached the State of N. Y. and been severely felt W. and S. Westwardly. There was one here this morning at 5 or 6 minutes after 4 o'C. It was rather stronger than any preceding one, & lasted several minutes; with sensible tho' very slight repetitions throughout the succeeding hour.

Be assured of my best affections.

TO JOEL BARLOW.

MAD. MSS.

WASHINGTON Feb 24, 1812

DEAR SIR, Mr. Morris delivered yesterday morning the dispatches committed to him, including your letters to me.

The reasons for hastening the departure of the vessel now ordered to France, will not permit the Sec! of State to do much more than acknowledge the receipt of your communications. The instructions you wish relative to the question of a Commercial

ings, with regret, that there are instances in the conduct of the court as well as of the officer on trial, which are evidently and justly objectionable, his acquittal of the several charges, exhibited against him, is approved and his sword is accordingly ordered to be restored."-Annals of Congress, 12th Cong., Part 2, p. 2125.

VOL. VIII-12

Treaty with F. at this time, as well as the requisite terms, should such an one be admissible, will be subjects of due consideration and early communication.

I see with pleasure the auspicious attentions which have distinguished your intercourse with the F. Govt, and the convincing views presented, on your part, of the commercial policy which it ought to adopt towards the U. S. From these sources encouragement is drawn. In other respects the prospect suggests distrust rather than expectation. The delay in answering your note, the vagueness of the answer when given; the refusal to sign the contents of the paper presented by you, even in the ordinary & unexceptionable form proposed; and the substitution of a verbal for a written notification of the orders to the Custom Houses, &c &c, by which our merchants were to be invited to the F. Market, are circumstances which necessarily attract serious notice. The reserve manifested on the subject of the paper alluded to is the more remarkable as a written sanction to it would have so little committed them. Beyond a freedom of the French ports to the products of the U. S. under all the existing limitations & incumbrances, it pledged nothing more than a melioration of formalities as to ownership and origin; leaving Colonial produce on the old footing of special licences. The liberation of the remaining Ships & Cargoes could surely have created no difficulty, if any real purpose of friendship or good faith be entertained. It would seem therefore that the objection must have lain against the clause forbidding captures & seizures,

for other cause than forged papers. The recent condemnations in the Baltic cases, and the avowal of the F. Consul in Denmark that all vessels, whithersoever bound, with Colonial produce were within the orders to capture, favor this conjecture; and if it be the true one, adjustment is hopeless; and the consequences obvious. I do not forget that your understanding of all these particulars was better than mine can be, and that my constructions may be merely colorable. I wish this may be the case, but we find so little of explicit dealing or substantial redress mingled with the compliments and encouragements which cost nothing because they may mean nothing, that suspicions are unavoidable; and if they be erroneous, the fault does not lie with those who entertain them.

From the scanty attention I can now give to the subject of a commercial Treaty with F. I am at a loss for the necessity of it, or the motives of F. to set it on foot, if it be not meant to gain time, and be guided by events.1 On our side we have nothing to stipulate, which is not secured to her, as long as she merits it, by our general system which leaves our exports & imports free, without any duties on the former, and with moderate ones on the latter. It is on her side that changes & securities are necessary to a friendly reciprocity; and these will for the present be satisfactory to us in the form of stable regulations fairly executed. Among them a reduced tarif favoring

Nevertheless, Barlow brought the subject before the French government and submitted the full draft of a commercial treaty. Barlow to. Monroe, December 31, 1811.-D. of. S. MSS. Despatches.

all our great Staples, and a transit thro' F. ports to inland markets, are indispensable to a continued admission of F. staples. The system of licences must be abolished, if not by F. by us. The neglect of the subject by Cong is remarkable, but the event cannot be doubtful. Such a mode of commerce corrupts one class of Citizens and disgusts all the rest; & when the trade licensed is in foreign, not native articles, the evil preponderates still more over the profit. The F. Govt seems to have taken up a radical error with regard to the commercial interests of the two Countries. It overrates our desire of her commodities. The present footing of the commerce is intolerable to the U. S. and it will be prohibited, if no essential change takes place. At all times it will be a barter of food & raw materials for superfluities, in great part; and altogether so (with the temporary exception of colonial re-exports) as long as a balance in money is prevented by the existing policy of France, and a return of useful fabrics by the war. Why might not certificates of origin from F. Consuls, or still better of direct shipments from our ports, take the place of licenses. The advantages of the change are numerous & obvious. Mr. Gallatin promises to say something to Mr. Lee on this head.

I am concerned that the prospect of indemnity for the Rambouillet and other spoliations is so discouraging as to have led to the idea of seeking it thro' King Joseph. Were there no other objection than the effect on the public mind here, this would be an insuperable one. The gratification of the sufferers